


HOLD ME TIGHT OR DON'T

by LaughingThalia



Series: M A N I A [3]
Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, DCU, Red Robin (Comics)
Genre: Child Neglect, Past Child Neglect, Self Confidence Issues, Self-Doubt, Self-Esteem Issues, Sibling Rivalry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-08
Updated: 2018-04-08
Packaged: 2019-04-19 18:34:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 906
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14243319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LaughingThalia/pseuds/LaughingThalia
Summary: Nightwing had seen it as Bruce replacing his dead son.He'd never said it but it was clear in the way he looked at Tim.In some ways that's exactly what Tim was,a pale shadow of the vibrant and colourful sons Bruce was used to.A stand in for the real thing.A replacement.





	HOLD ME TIGHT OR DON'T

Tim Drake  
HOLD ME TIGHT OR DON'T

  
**I never really feel a thing**  
**I'm just kinda too froze**  
**You were the only one**  
**That even kinda came close**  
**I just pinch myself**  
**No longer comatose**  
**I woke up no luck**  
**I woke up no luck**

Tim Drake-Wayne had both the worst luck and the best luck in Gotham.  
The worst luck in that his parents had been super neglectful but best in that they'd been super rich.  
Worst luck in that they'd been killed brutally and Tim had discovered their bodies but best in that he then discovered Batman's secret identity and got adopted by him.  
When he'd gone to live with Batman he'd been excited. Sad because he was grieving but excited.  
Batman was his hero, still is even if he's a little more flawed now then he had been swooping through Gotham through the lenses of Tim's binoculars.  
Honestly aside from the whole dead parents thing it had been a dream come true.

**And when your stitch comes loose**  
**I want to sleep on every piece of fuzz**  
**And stuffing that comes out of you, you**  
**I took too many hits off this memory**  
**I need to come down**

He'd volunteered, begged really, to be Robin. He hadn't been chosen like the previous two.  
But Batman _needed_ him. He was going crazy from the loss of his second Robin, and the appearance of the Red Hood (who turned out to be one and the same). He was roughing up criminals, the police were getting antsie, Gotham in general was getting weary.  
He needed a Robin to ground him and Nightwing wasn't cutting it, Tim didn't blame him for that, he was busy in Blüdhaven after all.

 **Another day goes by**  
**So hold me tight**  
**Hold me tight or don't**  
**Oh no no no no, this isn't how our story ends**  
**So hold me tight**  
**Hold me tight or don't**

The way Robin III came to be always made Tim worry.  
Batman hadn't chosen him. Tim had begged him and when that hadn't been enough he'd black mailed him with his identity.  
What if Batman only kept him around because he was worried Tim would release all that information on him?  
Although by now Batman could have wiped his whole data drive and gotten rid of the evidence, so why didn't he?  
Maybe he felt sorry for Tim. He was a neglected, rich kid who had no friends and whose hobbies included stalking an almost 40 year old man across rooftops in the middle of the Night and drinking coffee.  
He was pretty pathetic.

 **I got too high again**  
**When I realized I can't not be with you**  
**Or be just your friend**  
**I love you to death but I just can't**  
**I just can't pretend**  
**We were lovers first**  
**Confidants but never friends**  
**Were we ever friends?**

Sometimes he worried that Batman would drop him one day, it wouldn't be too crazy. Robin I had been replaced by Robin II and then Robin II and died (come back to life and attacked Tim) and he had replaced him.  
It only seemed fair that someone would replace him but Tim didn't think he'd ever be ready for it.  
Robin was the most important thing to him, he wouldn't be able to stand it if Bruce took this away form him.

**But when your stitch comes loose**  
**I want to sleep on every piece of fuzz**  
**And stuffing that comes out of you, you**  
**I took too many hits off this memory**  
**I need to come down**

Tim wasn't as well trained as Dick  
and he didn't have the brute force of a true Gotham street kid like Jason  
he didn't really excel in training and every time Nightwing came by to watch it felt like he was boring a hole in his back with judgement at his short comings.  
Dick had later told him he was just worried he'd end up like Jason. Dead at the hands of some criminal.  
He'd been mad at Bruce for recruiting him, an untrained kid, so soon after Jason's death.

 **Another day goes by**  
**So hold me tight**  
**Hold me tight or don't**  
**Oh no no no no, this isn't how our story ends**  
**So hold me tight**  
**Hold me tight or don't**  
**Hold me tight or don't**

Nightwing had seen it as Bruce replacing his dead son.  
He'd never said it but it was clear in the way he looked at Tim.  
In some ways that's exactly what Tim was,  
a pale shadow of the vibrant and colourful sons Bruce was used to.  
A stand in for the real thing.  
A replacement.  
And a piss poor one at that.

**Cause I'm past the limits**  
**The distance between us, it sharpens me like a knife**  
**(Past the limits)**  
**The distance between us, it sharpens me like a knife**

Tim managed though.  
It wasn't too bad.  
At least it wasn't too bad until the title had been ripped from him and handed to Bruce's real kid.

All Tim had ever wanted was to be Robin and now he wasn't even that. He'd tried to cling on,  _Red Robin,_ but it just made him seem desperate.

Which he was.

 **Another day goes by**  
**So hold me tight**  
**Hold me tight or don't**  
**I'm pretty sure that this isn't how our story ends**  
**So hold me tight**  
**Hold me tight or don't**


End file.
